The present invention generally relates to the field of video streaming in a communication system, such as a wireless, or a wireline communication network.
In a video streaming system, such as HTTP video streaming, a tension exists between the limited network resources and the resolution and quality of the received video content that can impact the quality of experience (QoE) for the user of a terminal device, such as a mobile phone, receiving the video content via a wireless communication network.
Situations can occur in a wireless communication network in which there are insufficient radio resources to maintain multiple video streaming sessions at the desired QoE level for each of the video streaming sessions, which may result in degradation of the QoE for one or more users of the terminal nodes receiving the video streaming sessions. For example, such QoE degradation in the received video streaming session may result in freezing or skipping of the video being displayed on the terminal device resulting in lost portions of the video session not being displayed or in recurring glitches/freezes in the video display, which significantly degrades the user's QoE for the video session. In other extreme situations, a video session being watched by the user at a terminal node can be unintentionally and randomly terminated because of insufficient resources in the wireless communication network to support the video session.